Are CDs/DVDs obsolete?

I think as for CD's there definatley coming to a "end" so to speak however DVD still seems to be popular however within the release of Netflix and other streaming websites they are slowly deterirating.

 

Why? Cds will never come to an end seeing that there are always some idiots who buys them

 

CD's are definitely obsolete. DvD's still useful a bit. The future of DvD's is Blu-Ray however, I'd say in a year or two DvD's will be out-dated.

 

The CD/DVD is the only one technology that can save your information for 10-15 years, if they recorded at once and put into a bag.

 

The paper is the only one technology that can save your information for 10-15 years, if they writed at once and put into a bag.

 

Nah, honestly i would think they are good for another 15 years atleast. With all the older people relying on them to watch movies or listen to music in there cars, they will still sell.

 

15 years? There were no USB flash drives 15 years ago, and the largest storage device you would find was a 256MB floppy disc. If we can go from 256MB portable storage to 500GB, and 50TB harddrives in that short of time, imagine where we're going to be in another 15 years... flash drives will probably be obsolete by then, CDs would be like vinyls are today. Probably not even novelty, just trash.

 

The writer makes a good point. But CD's will only be replaced when a cheaper/bettere alternative is there. USB's are alot better, but at the moment, not cheaper. When CD's become more expensive, or USB's become less expensive, CD's will become obselete.

 

I don't think price has much to do with whether people prefer USB over CDs. If you're talking strictly price as the deciding factor when looking into virtual storage and transferal, CDs are immensely more expensive than some of the possibilities out there.

Let's look at online storage. DropBox, for example, is very functional. It gives you a decent amount of storage and it's entirely free for 5GB of data. Their paid accounts offer many more gigabytes for prices that start below 10 dollars. You can go as far as entirely backing up your whole desktop or laptop, and quickly and easily transfering it ALL to a new machine in under an hour or two. You can use it for school and work files as easily as any other device-- maybe easier still, since you don't have to remember to grab your USB or CD devices when you leave for work/school the next morning, it's all there on the internet, ready to grab whenever you need it. So there's that

If you're looking at CDs in terms of products that contain program files already written on the discs (video games, software, etc), you aren't paying for the CD at all! You're paying for the product that's written ON the CD. The price wouldn't change at all if it were sold on a USB device instead, I bet you. You may think "but hey, aren't bluray discs more expensive than DVDs?", there's a difference. Bluray is more expensive because the quality of the information written on the device is THE MARKETING KEY to movies. Bluray offers better video files than DVDs, therefore it's more expensive; USBs would offer the SAME content that would be sold on CDs. Windows 7 wouldn't be a better product whether it's sold on a USB or a CD, it'd still be Windows 7, and you'd still be paying the same amount for the same program.

 

My bad, I should have mentioned this, but I wasn't talking about people wanting CDs over USBs because of price, rather, I was talking about the companies which sell their product on CDs. Companies want to maximize their profits, so if USBs did become cheaper, companies will start making the switch from CDs to USBs. USBs will replace CDs, rendering CDs obselete.

However, selling products (songs/movies etc.) online will/should be cheaper because there is no material cost (and other various costs). So I think that digital sales and virtual storage will the way to go. BUT virtual storage and digital sales require internet access, and a USB does not. So perhaps the USB wont be obselete until internet is available on every applicable device or another type of improved storage device replaces it.

 

I don't believe so. I still have cd's upon cd's in my car! :3

Personally I prefer to shuffle through a cd case rather than through some virtual playlist, maybe its how I grew up, but I'll never get over "real" album or cd cover art. <3

 

On top of this, CDs are easier to mass produce; they use a smaller amount and variety of materials than USBs. So it is a waiting game-- CDs will only die when USBs are easier to manufacture

I'd have to say though, you're basing your conclusion off of your own personal preference singularly. If you look at the percentages of people your age who listen to a fat stack of CDs as opposed to people who use iPods (which is essentially a USB device since you can only load music USING a USB port) in their cars, I bet you more people use iPods (or other similar MP3 players). Personally, I threw away all my CDs a few years ago and went with an iPod, and now my iPhone contains all my music. All 4000+ songs! I can roadtrip to New York and back and never listen to the same song twice